Chie Maruyama
'Chie Maruyama '(丸山知恵 Maruyama Chie) is a journalist from Toyo TV who came to Kurôzu-Cho along with Mr. Endo and Mr. Sakagami, fellow reporters. From chapter 14 to her death, she assumes the role of deuteragonist while Shuichi is too deep in shock to really do much. Appearance Chie has a slightly wavy shoulder-length black bob with a fringe parted on either side of her face, the bulk of hair tucked behind her ears. She wears a suit with a skirt, small, spherical earrings with pumps, and a wedding band faithfully adorning her finger. She has large, bright eyes and full lips above a pointed chin. In the movie, Chie is taller, and has shorter, straighter hair. She is usually seen with a "cool" expression. Personality Chie is a very compassionate person, she is also very proactive and responsible. She pursues help for the injured members of her camera crew and expresses sympathies whenever someone encounters misfortune. She is sharp-eyed, logical and rational. She has a presumably high pain tolerance, or she is headstrong enough to be undeterred by superficial wounds. In the movie, she is quite generally apathetic, cool, and level-headded. From what is shown of her, she also seems quite a bit less sympathetic towards others, seeing the events in Kurôzu-Cho as less of a tragedy and more of an interesting story. Plot Butterflies Chie travels to Kurôzu-Cho in a media van with Mr. Endo and Mr. Sakagami to report on the damages of hurricanes 3, 4, 5 and 6 that hit the town after all contact was lost with the outside. Her car is flipped by a tornado and, wounded, she climbs out and seeks help for her injured and unconscious co-workers. Chaos Numerous whirlwind gangs have risen in Kurôzu-Cho, destroying old buildings recreationally and posing a threat to other citizens. Chie, assisted by Kirie and Mitsuo go scavenging for supplies but instead, she lets out a scream, creating a whirlwind at her discovery of the reappearance of the snail-people. After returning to the rowhouse, an occupant digs a map out of the wall plaster which lands on Chie. She examines it with Kirie, and find it depicts Kurôzu-Cho and a portion of Midoriyama-Shi, but where the city should be there is only a giant spiral. The Goshimas, Chie and Shuichi are evicted when a hostile inhabitant, infuriated by Shuichi's repetition of the phrase "this town is going mad," forcefully and quite literally boots him out of the row house. They come across a whirlwind gang cooking something, and find that it is three snail-people, presumably those from earlier. The gang seems to be unaware of the past human lives of the snails and begin eating, even offering some to Mitsuo. The gang leader begins to harrass the group and Yasuo Goshima steps in, although sparking an altercation. The gang catches Kirie's group up in a whirlwind and blows them toward Dragonfly Pond, now a powerful whirlpool. Kirie and Chie hold onto each other, and Shuichi appears and saves them by grabbing Kirie's hand and latching onto a telephone pole. Erosion More and more people come to Kurozu-cho, and are trapped. Chie mentions that she had tried to walk through the tunnel but the spiral sent her back. She listens to everyone's stories of escape attempts. She follows a group of desperate people to a row house, where she discovers that the inhabitants' bodies are compressed together. She and Kirie are both reluctant to eat snail people, but they decide to when Shuichi does. The three find Mitsuo turning into a snail and Kirie decides to leave. Escape Chie follows Kirie and Shuichi out of Kurozu-cho, but doesn't say much except a few suggestions about where to go. The Labyrinth Chie follows Kirie and Shuichi into Kurozu-cho, now a spiral. She keeps going with them until she becomes tired and can't go as fast. People build part of the row house around her, and she is trapped and is carried into Dragonfly Pond and presumably buried under the corpses behind her.Category:Characters